 | 'I just miss her tremendously.' Fergus Ewing MSP, 24 th March 2006. |  |
| 'I just miss her tremendously.' Fergus Ewing MSP, 24 th March 2006. | |
WHEN Margaret Ewing was diagnosed with breast cancer, she considered herself one of thousands of women facing the same battle.
A disease may not have set her apart -but her passion for politics and her deep-rooted sense of principle did.
This week, as Holyrood mourns the loss of one of its most respected members, MSP Fergus Ewing is grieving for his wife.
Margaret collapsed early on Tuesday in their cottage in Lossiemouth as Fergus was in Edinburgh on parliamentary business.
She died on their couch at around 4am, surrounded by constituency letters.
Fergus had spoken to her earlier on the phone, as he did every day.
In the last four years, she beat breast cancer and pneumonia but they left her body vulnerable. It was anaemia that finally overwhelmed her.
But Fergus said: "She had seemed much better and she was in great spirits when I spoke to her. I was pleased that she seemed happy and chirpy."
He was also glad that she had agreed not to return to parliament until after Easter. Fergus said: "I didn't think she was up to it and we were looking forward to spending some time together."
That he wasn't there at the last is a source of great regret to Fergus. But he said: "I was glad that she died at home. She was grateful to the NHS but I think she would have hated to go back to hospital."
Latterly, their enduring marriage had helped fortify her defences against illness -an opponent more formidable than any she had faced in the debating chamber.
Fergus, like his wife, is a robust character but her death has left a yawning gap in his life.
The tributes to Margaret this week have been glowing and crossed party lines. But his is simply: "I just miss her tremendously.
"She was a loving, caring person who was a great pleasure to be with and who I am glad was with me for almost a quarter of a century."
First Minister Jack McConnell painted an accurate picture when he said: "She was tenacious for those she represented, tireless for the cause she supported, witty when faced with bombast or pretension but without rancour or malice." Her sense of decency made her stand out in the snakepit of politics and SNP leader Alex Salmond said she was "one of the few politicians without an enemy".
Fergus said: "She never made enemies, she never went in for personal attacks -not that she wasn't hard. She was strong and she expressed herself passionately." The Moray MSP faced her illness with the same grit and dignity which characterised a career spanning 32 years. She led the SNP's parliamentary group from 1987 until devolution in 1999 and was parliamentary convener at Holyrood.
Margaret was MP for Dunbartonshire East from 1974 until 1979 and was elected as MP for Moray in 1987, holding the seat until 2001. She moved to Holyrood with devolution and became an MSP.
Margaret was at the forefront of the nationalist wave in the 1970s. That brought with it a relentless campaign trail that contributed to the breakdown of her first marriage, to Donald Bain.
Her marriage in 1983 to Fergus, who was then a lawyer, made her part of the Ewing dynasty. His mother Winnie quit Holyrood in 2003 and his sister is former Perth MP Annabelle Ewing.
But Margaret never lost her own sense of identity and was proud of her heritage as the daughter of John McAdam, a farm worker, and his wife Peggy in Biggar, Lanarkshire.
Fergus said: "She had an affinity with the people of Moray. She understood the country and its issues."
FERGUS was 12 years her junior but they had a mutual love of each other and politics. Their marriage remained strong.
She was an established political figure by the time he became Inverness East MSP and had been a committed Nationalist since her days at Glasgow University.
Her tutor told her she could have won a first in history if only she would forget the SNP and get her "priorities right".
"I have got them right," she told him.
With Fergus, she found someone who could understand the meetings, the days away on business and the drive that saw them spend so much time apart.
They fell in love at a friend's wedding. Fergus said: "She was attractive, vivacious and great company. She was easy to like."
But in April 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She kept it secret until a lumpectomy proved unsuccessful and a mastectomy became her only option.
Fergus said: "She wanted to go public to break the taboo of breast cancer.
"She knew tens of thousands of women faced the disease every day but she wanted to take some of the fear out of it."
In a public tribute, she spoke of how physical scars could never have tested the devotion of her husband.
She returned to work after only six months and was re-elected in Moray.
Her only concession to illness had been a vow to reserve one day a week for a walk on the beach. But in the summer of 2004, as Fergus ran for the deputy leadership, she fell desperately ill with pneumonia.
Fergus said: "She took all of her setbacks head on and got on with it."
She again returned to work, campaigning for the environment, the elderly, education and against poverty.
Fergus said: "She was never driven by ego, she didn't brief against politicians. She had a tremendous sense of what was really important and she was usually right."
Last year, she led a delegation to Malawi, which resulted in a campaign for Scotland to help lift the African nation out of poverty.
Fergus had been concerned it would prove too much but she insisted it was too important a cause to ignore.
But determination was not enough to save her. Since the cancer and pneumonia, she had lost her appetite and her body was more vulnerable than she acknowledged.
At 3am on Tuesday, a neighbour saw a light go on. It's likely she died an hour later.
A week earlier, she was watching Crufts, wondering what kind of dog she should buy to join her on the beach for her planned retirement next year.
Fergus said: "She was looking forward to it. She said, 'Now it's time for me'." But that time never arrived and she died ploughing through work, as usual.
Her funeral - attended by people grateful for that dedication - will be held in Lossie-mouth tomorrow.
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